James Stevenson Loughridge was born in County Antrim of Presbyterian stock and educated at Belfast Royal Academy. His medical training was at Queen's University, Belfast, where he graduated with honours. After postgraduate appointments at Rochdale and Manchester he returned to Belfast as demonstrator of physiology in Professor Thomas Milroy's department. He took a BSc in physiology and then proceeded MD with commendation, and passed the Final FRCS in 1928. He was appointed registrar in surgery at the Royal Victoria Hospital and began to build up an extensive private practice. He became honorary attending surgeon in charge of outpatients at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children, and later assistant surgeon and then consultant surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital. After retiring from active surgical practice in 1967 he served for several years as medical superintendent at the Royal Victoria Hospital. James Loughridge was a member and one-time President of the Moynihan Surgical Club, President, and subsequently honorary life Fellow, of the Ulster Medical Society. He delighted in visits to surgical centres at home and abroad. Known as 'Jamsie' to his close colleagues and students, he was an excellent teacher at the bedside and in the theatre. His tutorials were embellished with aphorisms and he had a phenomenal memory for places, events, patients and their histories. Atmosphere in the operation theatre was always quiet and relaxed whilst he was working. During the second world war he travelled the length and breadth of Northern Ireland and did much emergency surgery in many hospitals and even in patients' homes. In his early days he was fond of walking and kept very fit. Travel allowed him to pursue his great interest in archaeology and he was an enthusiastic photographer. Though his last years were dogged by trouble from an arthritic hip he loved to potter in his garden. He died on 6 April 1980 and was survived by his wife, Ethel, a daughter and two sons, one of whom is a surgeon in Belfast.